The complex case stemming from the 1986 midair collision over Cerritos--the worst air disaster in Los Angeles County history--went to a federal court jury Friday, after an attorney for the Federal Aviation Administration argued that air traffic controller Walter White was not to blame for the tragedy that killed 82 people. Justice Department attorney Steven J.

The complex case stemming from the 1986 midair collision over Cerritos--the worst air disaster in Los Angeles County history--went to a federal court jury Friday, after an attorney for the Federal Aviation Administration argued that air traffic controller Walter White was not to blame for the tragedy that killed 82 people. Justice Department attorney Steven J.

The family of William Kramer, the pilot whose plane collided with an Aeromexico passenger jet over Cerritos last Aug. 31, killing 82, filed suit in U.S. District Court against the airline seeking unspecified damages. The Kramer family said in its suit the airline is liable because it failed to adequately train flight crew members in "see-and-avoid" collision techniques and did not equip the passenger jet with collision-warning devices that might have helped avert the tragedy.

A federal judge Tuesday ruled that the court should take custody of the estate of William Kramer, the private pilot whose plane collided with an Aeromexico jetliner over Cerritos in 1986. The judge found that the estate, which wanted to remove itself from the litigation, has admitted "some liability" in the disaster that resulted in 82 deaths. U.S.

A federal judge Tuesday ruled that the court should take custody of the estate of William Kramer, the private pilot whose plane collided with an Aeromexico jetliner over Cerritos in 1986. The judge found that the estate, which wanted to remove itself from the litigation, has admitted "some liability" in the disaster that resulted in 82 deaths. U.S.

The families of three fishing buddies who died in the Aeromexico jetliner disaster in Cerritos in 1986 have been awarded a combined $4 million by a Los Angeles federal court judge, but it may be some time before they see any money, according to lawyers in the case. The monetary judgments, handed down individually late last week by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real, were the latest in about half a dozen awarded so far in the midair collision that claimed 82 lives.

A federal judge Thursday delayed for a week a decision on whether to declare a mistrial in the civil case to establish fault for the 1986 midair collision between a private plane and an Aeromexico DC-9 over Cerritos in which 82 people were killed. U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon said he wants to hear more arguments before he rules Nov. 10 on a U.S.

The air traffic controller who tracked an Aeromexico jetliner before it collided with a private plane over Cerritos and crashed testified Tuesday that he had sought psychiatric help because he was traumatized by the tragedy in which 82 people died two years ago. "I was feeling a lot of sorrow, grief and empathy," Walter White, 37, said of the days and weeks after the accident. "I was very moved by this, and I did try to talk to someone to help me work out all that happened."

A federal District Court judge in Los Angeles awarded $2.7 million Wednesday to the family of a Norwalk truck driver and his son who were killed in the 1986 collision of an Aeromexico jetliner and a small plane over Cerritos. The wrongful-death award is twice as much as a similar award handed down last month in the first damages case stemming from the disaster, which killed 82 people. Seventy other suits are pending, according to lawyers involved in the cases. After a two-day hearing, U.S.

The first of dozens of wrongful death suits filed in the 1986 crash of an Aeromexico jetliner in Cerritos after a midair collision concluded in Los Angeles Federal Court on Wednesday with the award of more than $1.3 million in damages to a San Jose man whose wife and son were killed. After a two-day hearing, U.S.

The family of William Kramer, the pilot whose plane collided with an Aeromexico passenger jet over Cerritos last Aug. 31, killing 82, filed suit in U.S. District Court against the airline seeking unspecified damages. The Kramer family said in its suit the airline is liable because it failed to adequately train flight crew members in "see-and-avoid" collision techniques and did not equip the passenger jet with collision-warning devices that might have helped avert the tragedy.

September 2, 1986 | GEORGE STEIN and DAVID HOLLEY, Times Staff Writers

William K. Kramer drove an immaculately kept 1969 Buick Riviera, worked long hours as an executive for International Light Metals and was described by friends as an experienced and cautious pilot, although federal investigators said he had logged only 231 hours of flying time over a period of five years. Kramer was the owner of the single-engine Piper Archer airplane that collided with an Aeromexico DC-9 Sunday.

First they sat patiently through a complex 4 1/2-month trial, listening to testimony from scores of witnesses and arguments from a dozen attorneys. Then, the jury of seven women and four men deliberated for 46 hours over 10 days, quarreling at times as they tried to decide who was to blame for the 1986 midair collision that killed 82 people in 1986. Martha Wade, a juror from Anaheim, said that despite the tense deliberations, the jurors "were friends to the end." Some jurors embraced in the jury's chambers after the unanimous verdict was read Friday, and one juror said she might plan a reunion.